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It Takes Two To Tango, And To Mediate: Legal Cultural And Other Factors Influencing United States And Latin American Lawyers' Resistance To Mediating Commercial Disputes, Don Peters

Don Peters

This article examines legal cultural and other factors influencing the resistance displayed by United States and Latin American lawyers to mediating commercial disputes. After surveying current contexts in which commercial mediation occurs in the United States and Latin American countries and summarizing data regarding commercial actors’ knowledge concerning the benefits of mediating, it analyzes the relatively infrequent use of mediation despite knowledge of its potential advantages over adjudicating. Focusing on lawyers, the article next explores factors that influence U.S. and Latin American lawyers when they converse with commercial clients about selecting dispute resolution methods. Analyzing similarities arising from universal decision-making …

Can We Talk?, Don Peters

Don Peters

CAN WE TALK: OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO MEDIATING PRIVATE TRANSBORDER COMMERCIAL DISPUTES IN THE AMERICAS Don Peters

This article examines cognitive and cultural barriers creating the comparatively infrequent use of mediation to resolve private, transborder commercial disputes in the Americas. It begins by analyzing the challenges of transborder commercial litigation. It then develops and supports the claim that international arbitration, the most frequently used transborder commercial dispute resolution method , suffers from many of litigation’s disadvantages, including excessive expense and delay, sacrificing outcome control, damaging or ending rather than preserving and improving commercial relationships, and using legalistic, rights based perspectives which …